Valienė, Rasa

Purpose – The main purpose of this interdisciplinary study is to explore the importance of communication and education requirements for the lecturers from the standpoint of classical rhetorical techniques and interactive methods applied to the teaching of Lithuanian as a foreign language to a multicultural group of students at Mykolas Romeris University (MRU). The article hypothesises a strong correlation between communicative and educational approaches when teaching the Lithuanian language. Moreover, it highlights the peculiarities of multicultural education. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an analysis of the scientific literature related to rhetorical persuasion techniques, on innovative language teaching methods and on the observation of student progress. Moreover, the article explores the development of the communication and professional knowledge of the lecturer, focusing on rhetorical persuasion skills and Lithuanian language teaching methods. Finding – Through the analysis of classical rhetorical techniques, interactive teaching/learning methods and the results of student monitoring, main conclusions emerged: for effective eloquence and communication, classical rhetorical canons as well as innovative, constructive, and interactive language teaching methods must be applied, suitable for a multicultural, contemporary group of students capable of developing their communicative and cultural competence inclusively. Research limitations/implications – The common limitation is that the study did not include a larger and a more diverse number of participants from other multicultural groups. Prolonged and in-depth observation of multicultural groups from other higher education institutions is needed. The fact that this study is characterised by a small number of variables facilitated the analysis of the lecturer’s communication skills and the innovative teaching methods used to target a language in one Lithuanian university: MRU. Moreover, an exploration of core competences and requirements for lecturers and an analysis of multilingual learning/teaching methods applied to other multicultural groups in international higher institutions could lead to more general conceptual conclusions. Practical implications – The findings contribute to the coherence of fundamental sciences, linguistics, rhetoric, pedagogy and communication theory, which play a paramount role in educating future leaders. The links between pedagogy and rhetoric have been known since ancient times. Moreover, enhancing the rhetorical and pedagogical knowledge, based on communication and education requirements with a focus to multicultural background, is useful not only to lecturers, educators and practitioners, but also to everyone who is seeking to be linguistically effective, rhetorically persuasive and professionally competent in a contemporary multicultural society. Originality/value – Although the scientific literature in this field includes a number of research studies analysing the methodology applied to develop the communicative abilities of students, this article explores for the first time the question of the lecturer’s communication skills, including parallels with rhetorical persuasion techniques, methods for teaching Lithuanian as a foreign language and patterns of multicultural environment. The analysis of effective communication from the different standpoints of pedagogy, linguistics, ethics and rhetoric makes the research interdisciplinary, authentic, and meaningful to scholars in different areas.

Purpose – the purpose of this article was to present the main features of classical rhetoric and to reveal their transformations, focusing, in particular, on Aristotle’s theory of categories of persuasion, an important technique of rhetoric applied in modern public discourse. Design/methodology/approach – the paper is based on scientific literature analysis and comparative analysis of different types of public speeches from ancient times to the present day. Findings – the final thesis of this article states that, although the requirements for public speech have been modified throughout history, the ability to reach rhetorical persuasion depends on the capacity to speak under the canons of classical rhetoric. Moreover, the most effective communication strategy is based on the synthesis of logos, ethos and pathos categories and their application in modern public discourse. Practical implications – the paper reveals several practical implications important for leadership development. Ethical and effective eloquence is the key to leadership, encouraging young members of contemporary society to be equally responsible for preserving common values and overcoming global issues. The modern public discourse demonstrates an obvious tendency towards opposition in speaking and acting processes. This situation is conditioned by an obvious lack of synthesis of the logos, ethos and pathos categories in daily rhetoric activities. Although it is common to speak eloquently and convincingly, spoken words do not always match the actions taken, particularly in political discourse. Therefore, rhetoric values, such as res non verba taken from Antiquity, the cradle of European culture, ought to be included in the education and development system of future leaders. Research limitations/implications – the speakers selected for the scope of this review differ in terms of their intentions, purposes, and types of speeches, i.e. some are informative, while others are emotional or appealing. The difference in structure and type of public speeches limits the scope of the analysis. Moreover, an additional factor of distinct variables has to be taken in consideration analyzing modern public discourse, namely historical period, culture, age, religion, gender and occupation, and, last but not least, the circumstances of a public speech which can all have a negative impact on the evaluation of paper making the analysis superficial and incomplete. Originality/Value – within the great variety of rhetoric theories and conventions, some have been modified over time, although the fundamental ones remain unchanged to this day. This has not, however, reduced the significance of public speaking quite on the contrary public speaking has become a daily activity in everyone’s life. Therefore, Aristotle’s theory of rhetorical categories is an important approach to every public speaker and the most effective strategy leading to rhetorical persuasion. Moreover, the dissemination of rhetoric is promoted by a significant growth of communication throughout the world. Furthermore, stylistics, structural poetics, text linguistics, logic, advertising theory, pedagogy, psychology and other sciences are also based on the research of classical rhetorical traditions and transformations. By comparison, in the context of cultural integration, eloquence and the ability to communicate has become particularly important in social, political, educational or entrepreneurship activities.

The article provides the analysis of fundamental requirements, so called virtues of eloquence (purity of language – latinitas, clarity – perspicuitas, appropriateness – aptum and ornament – ornatus), necessary for any public speech regardless of its type or genre. The most complex, different and modified systems of great Greek and Roman authorities – Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dionysus of Halicarnassus, Hermogenes, Cicero and Quintilian – are presented in the article. Although the number of the virtues of eloquence has undergone many additions, subtractions and permutations, in general they remain fundamental and irreplaceable rules of good public speech and play a paramount role in the fields of modern rhetoric and stylistic.